This invention relates in general to fodder, and more particularly to an apparatus and process for protecting hay when it is stored outdoors.
Farmers plant and harvest hay primarily as a source of fodder for their cattle during the winter months when cattle have little or no grass upon which to graze. The hay loft of the traditional barn has served as a storage area for much of this hay, protecting it from the elements which might have otherwise caused the hay to rot and disintegrate. Harvesting machinery accommodated this end by providing relatively small rectangular bales which weighed no more than about 50 lbs. each. A single individual could easily handle such a bale, while a simple conveyor was all that was necessary to elevate it to a hay loft.
The traditional rectangular bale has to a measure given way to large cylindrical bales measuring about 6 ft. in diameter and weighing in excess of 1000 lbs. These bales, which are produced on special harvesting machines, are much too large to be stored in barns, much less lifted into hay lofts. To move a large cylindrical bale requires a tractor equipped with a special fork which penetrates the bale from its end. These tractors usually move such bales to the edges of the fields in which their hay is grown or to nearby pastures, but rarely are the bales placed under a protective cover.
Indeed, the typical cylindrical bales remain exposed to the elements while they await use as fodder. Rain and snow penetrate these bales, and in time the hay within them becomes moldy and rots, particularly immediately beneath the outer layer of hay. Moldy and rotten hay can be toxic to cattle. Thus, by the end of winter and the following spring much of the hay which is stored outdoors is unfit for consumption by cattle, but this is the time when many cows give birth and should have the highest quality fodder.
Covers large enough to extend over the tops of cylindrical hay bales are currently available on the market, but these covers do not protect the full sides of the bales, nor do they prevent water from soaking up from the ground. U.S. Pat. No. 4,248,343 shows such a cover.
A need exists for a cover which extends completely around a large cylindrical bale, as well as for a machine and process for installing such a cover. The present invention concerns such a machine and process.